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The Scherzo from Litolff's Fourth Concerto has long been a Classical lollipop; now find out what the rest sounds like …

Litolff was one of the great virtuosi of the nineteenth century. His five Concertos Symphoniques (the first of which is now unfortunately lost) were of major influence in the transition from the Classically-derived concertos of Hummel, Moscheles and Chopin to the more symphonic late-Romantic concertos. He pioneered the use of a four-movement structure which included a Scherzo (as in Brahms's Second Concerto) and gave the orchestra much more of the thematic material. Indeed, although the piano writing is very brilliant, much of it is accompanimental. The Second Concerto is a real rarity, the orchestral parts proving very hard to locate. This is probably its first performance in over 130 years.

Reviews

'Recording and presentation are first class' (Gramophone)

'This entertaining Hyperion CD is one of the year's surprises and very much worth having' (The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs)

'Magical playing … the music is irresistibly melodious, inventive and dazzlingly virtuosic. Donohoe throws off the technical pyrotechnics with insouciance. A fine recording only enhances the joys of this entertaining music and Donohoe's exhilarating performance' (The Sunday Times)

'Donohoe and Litton rise to the occasion magnificently with panache and poetry in equal measure … for the fourteenth time in this historically important series of recordings we can raise our hats and say "Thank you, Hyperion"' (Classic CD)

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Introduction

The French critic, composer and pianist Oscar Comettant declared in his book Musique et musiciens of 1862 that the piano and piano playing had become so popular that a separate town should be set aside for pianists. Comettant’s ‘Pianopolis’ was based upon the fact that there were twenty thousand piano teachers in Paris alone and that if each had five students there must be at least one hundred thousand pianists residing in the city, approximately one fifth of the total population. In reading the various journals, letters and other documentation of that century, one is impressed by the sheer bulk of literature for the piano published at that time and by the virtually infinite number of people playing the instrument. One of the many pianists captured by this keyboard industry was Henry Charles Litolff, an itinerant concert pianist who visited most of the European countries during his lifetime, composed piano concertos, salon music, chamber music, a few orchestral compositions, and twelve operas, the three earliest of which were written prior to 1860 when he settled in Paris for the rest of his life.

Litolff was born in London on 6 August 1818. His father, Martin Louis Litolff, was an Alsatian dance violinist who had been taken prisoner by the English during the Peninsular War in Spain. He taught the young Henry until the age of twelve. His mother was a Scottish lady, Sophie Hayes. The adverse circumstances of the Litolff family placed the son as a labourer in F W Collard’s piano factory where he later demonstrated pianos and his practising was so impressive that Collard recommended Litolff to Ignaz Moscheles who taught him until he was seventeen when he eloped. For a time, his wanderings and temporary residencies were the life of a flamboyant concert pianist, teacher and conductor in cities and countries throughout Europe, from Brussels, Berlin, Braunschweig and Warsaw to Paris.

Besides his four marriages, the final one in 1873, he befriended many musicians including the renowned piano teacher at the Paris Conservatoire Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann, the piano builder Jean Henri Pape, the music critic François-Joseph Fétis, composers Hector Berlioz and Franz Liszt, and the Parisian conductor Jules Étienne Pasdeloup. At one point he had a nervous breakdown and lived with the Von Bülow family in Dresden, in exchange for which he taught the young Hans von Bülow.

Sometime during 1846 Litolff visited Braunschweig briefly. There he became a friend of the music publisher Gottfried Meyer and his wife Julie. This friendship proved to be of lasting value to Litolff who returned to Braunschweig in 1849 on the occasion of Meyer’s death. Meyer’s will appointed Litolff as executor and from that point he was accepted as a family member, even legally adopting the eldest son, Theodor. In 1851 Litolff married Julie Meyer, assumed control of the publishing firm, attached to it his own own name (‘Litolff’s Verlag’), and settled in Braunschweig. The resulting important musical family frequently entertained many of the well known musicians who visited the firm. Later, after Litolff had departed for Paris, the firm became known for its inexpensive editions, initiated by Theodor Litolff (Meyer). But business life did not appeal to Litolff and 1855 he entered the employment of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

The old wandering ways returned and Litolff gave many concerts on his way back to Paris where his career became more limited, corresponding to the gradual decline of the popular piano virtuoso and the overcrowded field described by Comettant. Conducting and operatic composition captured most of his creative activity. A distinct change is perceptible as Litolff gradually settled into Parisian musical life: the former flamboyance and the erratic behaviour disappear, and in their place there appears a humble and mature musician who ultimately won considerable respect from many segments of musical life in Paris. But the operatic field remained inaccessible to him, although several of his operas were performed. Thus it seems that it was mainly for financial reasons that he maintained a studio for teaching piano, although he even managed to be chef d’orchestre at the Opéra from 1867 to 1870. Since his success as an operatic composer had been limited he now restricted himself to the composition of operetta.

After the death of his third wife, Louise, he lived for some time in Paris were he was the conductor of an orchestra in a small theatre in the suburbs. Falling ill shortly afterwards, he was nursed back to health by a young girl whom he married later in the same year at Nogent-sur-Marne. She was seventeen and he fifty-eight. The final fifteen years of his life were spent in semi-retirement, sporadically guest-conducting, teaching, and composing operettas. His health was feeble and, aside from moments of revival, the career which had begun so flamboyantly ended in obscurity. His death, in Bois-Colombes on 5 August 1891, was a symptom of the demise of this versatile type of musician—performer and composer—and occurred at the end of the era in which the piano had been the dominating force.

The significant achievements in the field of nineteenth-century keyboard music are a continuation of the developments of the Viennese Classicists, especially Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. The connecting link between the Classical and Romantic periods is exemplified in the works of Hummel, and later of Litolff. The difference between them—a difference in structure—is one which applies to all the music of the two periods. The individual element or motif emerges in the nineteenth century as the basic entity in the structure of entire compositions. Previously this element had been only a part of the whole, significant only in the way it worked or participated in the construction of the work, and it had no independence, depending rather upon the total architectonic idea. Only in the nineteenth century was the idea of treating a single element or motif independently and making it the basis of an entire composition fully developed. The genres epitomizing this technique were the miniatures for piano such as nocturnes, preludes, études and berceuses. The piano composition which exemplifies this, of course, is the étude, a unicellular idiom in which the structure of the whole is dependent upon the exhaustion of the possibilities of this cell. This facet of piano music influenced the greater part of the nineteenth century. At the same time, the leitmotif, cyclic form, and the idée fixe became the basis of many musical compositions. Litolff’s music consists of many salon pieces of the unicellular variety, limited orchestral music which uses cyclic and unicellular ideas, songs/Lieder, and the twelve operatic works. Of the piano works, only three do not have descriptive titles, and some strive to be more representational than just descriptive.

It is in the piano concertos, however, that Litolff is at his best, for he incorporates into these orchestral compositions not only all the characteristics of piano salon music, but also a profundity to the development of the material similar to that in Beethoven’s later works. The concertos are written on a grand scale. Litolff adds a Scherzo, making a total of four movements instead of the usual three; the concertos are actually symphonies with piano obbligato. The symphonic character of the solo-orchestral relationship is similar to that found in the concertos of Mozart and Beethoven and, of course, the placement of the Scherzo before the slow movement finds its precedent in Beethoven’s Symphony No 9. Undoubtedly, Litolff strove for a new equality between the orchestra and solo instrument, and he influenced Liszt in the use of the four-movement scheme (and in the use of the triangle): octave passages, so predominant in Litolff’s endings of sections, are used similarly in the Liszt concertos. There is, however, a major difference between the two composers: Liszt assigned to the piano more thematic material, while Litolff used it mostly in an accompanimental role but, of course, in a highly virtuosic manner. Of the five piano concertos, four survive, the most famous being the Fourth with its famous Scherzo movement.

The Concerto Symphonique in B minor, Op 22, was composed in 1844. It adheres to eighteenth-century structure with double expositions in the first movement (Maestoso). Only in the second movement does one perceive the radical changes which Litolff introduces to the genre: the Scherzo is used for the second movement, a new theme is used in the development sections, the third movement is a short and improvisational Andante, and the brilliant final Rondo-Allegretto begins with an ‘Elision/Introduction’.

The concerto is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani and strings.

Major changes to the genre also appear in the fourth Concerto Symphonique (No 4 in D minor Op 102), composed in 1851/2 and dedicated to his patron (Ernst II, Duc régnant de Saxe-Coburg-Gotha). This is perhaps Litolff’s finest piano concerto and the musical achievements in it are many. The first and last movements are based entirely on one idea, or theme, which Litolff handles in such a way that the aural illusion impressed upon the listener is that two or more themes are present. These movements are also thematic in that fragments of the theme appear in sections which are ordinarily not thematic (for example, transitional and modulatory passages). The co-operative interplay between the orchestral instruments and the piano is particularly developed. Litolff displays a complete command of the rhythmical architectonic structure and the fusion of a large orchestra and a single piano into one body of sound. At no time does the concerto seem to be a concerto: it is a symphony for two bodies of sound whose co-operative elements make it one whole.

The first movement, Allegro con fuoco, retains the double exposition structure seen in the second concerto. Each exposition adopts transformation and inversion and uses the thematic material sequentially. The Scherzo (Presto) is again the second movement, and its use of triangle and piccolo gives it a novel effect, helping to fulfil the generic meaning of the title ‘Concerto Symphonique’. Litolff’s manipulation of the orchestra and piano in question-and-answer type motifs produces one of his finest Scherzos.

The third movement (Adagio religioso) is linked to the second without pause and serves as the modulating force from D minor to F major. In three-part form, the third movement is improvisational in character. The final Allegro impetuoso has an introduction followed by a carefully worked-out sonata structure with some tempo changes within the movement. The virtuosic conclusion, with its flourishes and bravura character, underscores Litolff’s coloristic use of the piano and the orchestra.

The concerto is scored for two flutes, piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani and strings.